The wealth of documentation about my great-grandfather James W. Freeman that I have inherited recently reveals great clarity on his life at sea. Family tradition provided he served in the Merchant Marine. While it is correct that he served at sea for some time in a civilian capacity, before that he enlisted in the United States Navy during the Great War. Among his papers was a record of his enlistment and discharge certificate.

He enlisted for naval service in Oklahoma City on 20 March 1917, less than a month before the United States officially entered into WWI. Oklahoma is some distance from his home in Laton, Kings County, California, so why he was there remains unclear, but I do have a letter addressed to his mother from the city of Tulsa. His enlistment record suggested he had great facility with the manufacturing and forming of copper into various products, because he served as a coppersmith and coppersmith 1st class. Coppersmiths worked in the naval yards manufacturing pipes, artillery shells, and other parts commissioned for naval ships. His ratings were no less than 3.5, classified as very good, and maintained an excellent (4.0) rating for “Sobriety” and “Obedience.”

Fig 3. Coppersmith Shop is U.S. Navy Yard. Image Source: U.S. Naval History Heritage and Command.

According to his Certificate of War Service, he did spend sometime aboard the U.S.S. Ozark (BM-7), formerly the U.S.S. Arkansas. Launched 10 Nov 1900 and commissioned by the navy 28 Oct 1902, Ozark was classified as a “Battle Monitor,” responsible for cruising and patrolling the coastal waters. The ship could complement up to 220 men and was outfitted with 8 large guns. Upon the declaration of War, Ozark joined Submarine Division 6 of the Atlantic Fleet and cruised to Tampico, Mexico, ordered to cruise and defend the coastline. A year later, Ozark sailed to New Orleans and assisted in defending the waters from Key West to the Panama Canal Zone.[1]

James was honorably discharged from the Navy 29 Aug 1919 at the Mare Island Naval Base, near the city of Vallejo, California. After a short period of leave, he continued the seafaring life, in a civilian capacity. On October 6 1919, he applied for a Citizen Seamen’s Identification Card at the Customs House in San Francisco after arriving on the merchant vessel S.S. Alliance. These ID cards are very much comparable to Seamen’s Protection Certificates issued by the U.S. Government until 1871, because they provided proof of citizenship. On 3 Sep 1918, the Federal Government mandated all seamen embarking from U.S. ports were required to apply for an ID card and permission to sail from the Collector of Customs [T.D. 37753].[2] Seamen’s ID cards included such information such as the seamen’s full name, nationality, date of birth, birthplace and birthplace of parents, naturalization information (James Freeman’s ID card provides his U.S. Navy discharge number as proof of citizenship) and a brief physical description. These ID cards are in custody of the National Archives and Collected with NARA Record Group 41, Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation.

Around January 1920, James Freeman was admitted to the Marine Hospital in San Francisco.[3] The nature of his admittance is unknown, but his stay may have lasted several months because he made no voyages the year of 1920 and his ID card has stamps from immigration officers in England dated 1921.

There are multiple crew manifests listing James W Freeman, which I located through Ancestry.com. The crew manifests in conjunction with discharge slips and other documents have allowed me to reconstruct his voyage history and life at sea.

James W. Freeman completed seven voyages from 1922 to 1923 on the merchant vessel West Nosska that carried cargo and supplied between the East Coast of the United States and England. James carried his knowledge of marine machinery from the Navy onto civilian ships. The documents stated that he served in the capacity of an assistant engineer. Upon completing his final voyage in Jun 1923, he had ascended from 3rd assistant to 1st assistant engineer.

These breakthroughs in my great-grandfather’s seafaring career were made possible because my grandmother had held on to these documents. Using the wide array of sources has given me a much clearer picture and chronology of his life at sea. Having served in the Navy, I now have confirmation that he was a veteran of WWI. This is much different from the original notion that he was always a Merchant Mariner, which did not receive recognition for their role in the military until 1988 and even then it was mostly in part due to the Merchant Marine activity in WWII.[4] But before I inherited any of these documents, I did locate photographs of my great-grandfather in what I now know to be navy uniform and a certificate of appreciation addressed from the White House, dated 1964 shortly after James Wallace Freeman died, that acknowledged his service as a veteran. Together, all of these sources has brought this part of his life full circle.

Today is the day which the United States dedicates to honoring it’s veterans. I felt the best way possible for me was to share the stories and experiences about veterans in my family that I’ve gathered through my own research. Have you done the same? If you’re looking to get started or gather more information, try some of the tips mentioned in my blog post “Stories of Sacrifice: Researching Your Veteran Ancestor.”

I gave myself permission to perform a genealogy happy dance when I learned that FamilySearch had digitized county records from San Mateo County, California. My 3x great-grandfather Owen O’Neill was an early settler of Belmont township in San Mateo County, which lies about 20 miles southeast of San Francisco.

The county records for San Mateo on Familysearch include marriage intentions, naturalizations, deeds, patents, homesteads, military service discharges, and coroner’s reports from 1851-1991. Indexes for land records are available in this collection and include grantor, grantee, and those that consolidate both grantor/grantee. The three types of indexes are in bound volumes and each covers a different range of dates. The first 10 volumes of land records, dating from 1856-1910 are indexed in the consolidated grantor/grantee indexes. Deeds in these volumes are indexed by the first letter of the surname, not in exact alphabetical order. Researchers have to scroll through each image until they reach the desired entry. The indexes consolidating both grantors and grantees in the first 10 volumes are the ones that led me to the deeds of Owen O’Neill and his family.

San Mateo County, California Deeds. Book 1, page 472.

On 29 Dec 1858, Owen O’Neill purchased one acre portion of the Rancho called Tidgas Ramelio from Soledad O de Aigiuello, Jose Ramon Aigiuello of Santa Clara County and Simon Montserrate (S.M.) Mezes of the city of San Francisco. The one-acre tract of land ran along the eastern side of the county road to San Francisco, still known today as Old County Road in Belmont. [1]

San Mateo County, California Deeds. Book 4, page 101.

Almost three years later, Owen O’Neill added to his landholdings substantially. On 29 May 1861, he purchased 30 acres of swamp and overflow land for $75.00. This swamp land became known as “O’Neill’s Slough” and it was on this property that he erected a pier and rented docking space for boats used by local duck hunters.[2]

The next reference to Owen O’Neill in the land indexes brought me to the distribution of his estate. I was intrigued to find probate records in the deed books, for I had not seen this before. The probate file had been copied in by the register of deeds several months after their actual appearance in court. Owen died on 28 May 1871 intestate and it would be some years before the estate was finally settled. On 13 May 1878, his wife Ellen administrator filed in probate court the final account and petition for Owen’s estate, which would be heard before the probate judge on 2 Jan 1879. The record names five children of Owen, including Ellen Maria, Matthew, Katy, Eugene, and William O’Neill. Owen’s wife received one half of the land, while the children split the other half, amounting to one tenth each of his estate. [3]

Owen’s wife Ellen died 1 Aug 1883, and the children went back to probate to resettle the estate of Owen O’Neill. The register of deeds had once again copied the settlement of the estate, held in San Mateo County Superior Court on 31 Jan 1884. My great, great grandfather, Matthew J. O’Neill, himself a land speculator, was named administrator of the estate. It was decided in Superior Court that half of the O’Neill estate would be equally shared among the five children named Ellen Greichen, Matthew J. O’Neill, Eugene O’Neill, Katy F. O’Neill, and William J. O’Neill. The big clue from this document is Owen and Ellen’s first daughter by this time had married and eventually led me to who her husband was, a man named William Greichen. [4]

San Mateo County, California Deeds. Book 32, page 205.

Two weeks later, on 15 Feb 1884, the O’Neill Family returned to Superior Court where the estate of Owen’s wife, Ellen O’Neill, was settled; leaving the daughters Ellen Greichen and Katy Francis O’Neill to split the other half of the O’Neill property.[5]

Local history sources show that the O’Neill Slough or swamp land bought by Owen in 1861 went through many uses in the following generations. Owen’s son, Eugene, a grocer in Belmont, kept the landing going and in addition built shelters for duck hunters and sportsmen, as well as bathhouses for locals seeking a little R&R. The Belmont shoreline became a popular spot for locals and by the 20th century, shelters became permanent residents and led to establishing a new village in Belmont, known as “Shantytown.” Ironically, Belmont’s Shantytown wasn’t home to vagrants and paupers, but some of Belmont’s most respected citizens. Still, the marsh became a hot spot for smuggling and bootlegging in the 1930s and by the 1950s, had altogether disappeared.[6] The connection to duck hunters made all the more sense now, since I knew for a long time that my great-grandfather Mervyn O’Neill was an avid sportsmen. This picture below shows him on one of his hunting excursions. I am more than confident he spent a fair amount of time shooting game on the O’Neill property.

Locating deeds and tracking the real estate property within families is an important research direction for genealogists to take. It reveals some of the family dynamics, as well as the identities and any married names of children who appear in court. Combing through the land indexes, there are many more deeds concerning Owen’s children, particularly my great, great grandfather Matthew. We shall see what more genealogical treasures can be found digging through San Mateo’s county records.